Database On Unemployed Nigerians Ready By January - Aganga

The Federal Government is working with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) on a national survey of unemployed Nigerians and their level of skills. This is to help them to get employment in the sectors of the economy, which are attracting massive investments and job vacancies.
This was disclosed by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investments, Olusegun Aganga, after the inaugural meeting of the Presidential Jobs Board at the State House, Abuja, on Friday.
The board, with private and public sector players as members, is chaired by Vice-President, Namadi Sambo, and had met to evolve the right governance structure to drive and sustain government's plan to create about three million jobs for unemployed Nigerians in 12 months.
Aganga said there are many jobs in the country but the level of unemployment remains high, which is why the board is mandated to help fill the gap between jobs and unemployment.
According to him, "For the first time in this country we have begun a national job surveys of skills gap. So that for each sector we will know what the gap is, know what is required to fill that gap.
"We are not just looking at the existing gaps today, we are looking at where the investments are going to. We are looking at the next five to 10 years.
"For instance, a lot of investments are going to automobile, we have automobile engineers, how many will we need in the next five to 10 years.
"A lot of investments is going to sugarcane to sugar; do we have the skills to do that, how many will we need in the next three, five, 10 years?

"About N16 billion is going to petrochemicals, fertiliser, and methanol, we will need skilled players. A lot of investment is going to metals, iron ore and all that.
"Most of these positions at the moment in this country are not filled and if they are filled they are filled by foreigners. We do not have anything to ensure that our graduates coming out of the universities are relevant to the economy today.
"So, for the first time in this country we have embarked on that national survey with UNIDO and that survey will be ready in January."
"That survey will be used by training institutions like Industrial Training a Fund (ITF) to ensure people are trained, but not just train but train to work immediately," he said.
The results of the survey will also be used by the Ministry of Education, the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and similar institutions in the public and private sectors, as was done in the automobile sector where higher institutions have keyed in to train automotive engineers, the Minister said.
The private sector is also to be encouraged to set up skills training institutions, added Aganga, pointing out that such is used by Brazil to train two million people and 90 per cent of them get jobs within three months.
Another member of the Board, Ndudi Elumelu, assured Nigerians that the board would deliver on its mandate, and the members would meet in another three weeks after which key decisions will be made and communicated to Nigerians.